Case studies

Carbon laminates for Airbus A350 XWB

An enabled material contract has been signed to supply TenCate Cetex® carbon fabric laminates for use in the new Airbus A350 XWB among other EADS applications. Based on this award TenCate Advanced Composites Europe will start the delivery of TenCate Cetex® will start towards several Tier 1 and Tier 2 partners of Airbus that produce fuselage panels and components for the Airbus A350 XWB.

TenCate Cetex® (picture) material can be characterized as high strength and low weight. It will be applied to the stiffening structure of the body of the Airbus A350 XWB. The thermoplastic material is already used in existing Airbus programs, amongst others the Airbus A380. These advanced fabric reinforced thermoplastic composite materials are already used for many structural and semi-structural exterior as well as interior applications in aircraft.

With the supply of TenCate Cetex® material to the Airbus A350 XWB program, the importance of light and moldable thermoplastic material is once again underlined. One of the advantages of the application of thermoplastic composite is the ability for the serial production in large numbers.